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Lunar Eclipse of October 8th

Lunar eclipses are fairly common, but they're still quite breathtaking to view. As the full, bright Moon slowly turns from white to grey to orange then to red, it becomes easy to visualize the vast distances and sizes of the spaces and objects involved.

The Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, which is cast by the Sun. A dark limb moves across the Moon at first but then refracted light from Earth's atmosphere turns the face of the Moon orange and red (because the other wavelengths of visible light from the Sun are highly scattered by the Earth's atmosphere and don't reach the Moon).

Eclipsed Moon
The Moon begins to come out of the umbra, the darkest part of the shadow.
Meade 10" LX200-ACF f/10 and Canon EOS 60Da. 4-panel mosaic.

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